The described technology relates to an ice producing apparatus, such as for a bottom freezer refrigerator that includes a freezer compartment disposed below a fresh food compartment, and a corresponding method.
A known bottom freezer refrigerator includes a freezer storage compartment (freezer compartment) disposed below a fresh food storage compartment (fresh food compartment). In the known bottom freezer refrigerator, a temperature of an interior volume of the freezer compartment is generally maintained at or below a standard freezing point temperature of water (e.g., at or below 0 degrees Celsius), while a temperature of an interior volume of the fresh food compartment is generally maintained above the standard freezing point temperature of water (e.g., above 0 degrees Celsius). Specifically, the known bottom freezer refrigerator includes a cooling system with an evaporator that is disposed in an evaporator housing in the freezer compartment. The cooling system operates in a conventional manner, such that the evaporator cools the air in a volume adjacent the evaporator by absorption of energy from the air. This cold air flows from the volume adjacent the evaporator to the interior volume of the freezer compartment to cool the interior volume of the freezer compartment. Cool air from the volume adjacent the evaporator also flows to the interior volume of the fresh food compartment, to similarly cool the interior volume of the fresh food compartment. The air flows back from the interior volume of the fresh food compartment by being ducted back to the volume adjacent the known evaporator. The cycle repeats as described above.
Convenience necessitates that when a bottom freezer refrigerator includes an ice maker, the ice maker delivers ice through an opening in a door of the fresh food compartment, rather than an opening in a door of the freezer compartment. However, the cool air in the fresh food compartment is generally not cold enough to freeze water to produce and maintain the ice.
In the known bottom freezer refrigerator, the cold air is pumped from the evaporator in the freezer to the ice maker in the fresh food compartment. Such an arrangement suffers from certain disadvantages. For example, the ice is generally produced at a relatively slow rate, due to limitations of a volume and/or a temperature of the cold air pumped to the ice maker to freeze the water. This is because the same evaporator that cools the air that cools the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment also cools the air that freezes the water to produce the ice. As a result, when the ice is produced, less cooling capacity is available to cool the freezer and fresh food compartments.